


The Meeting

by rumissan



Category: The Arkanas Sagas: King of War
Genre: F/M, Gen, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-08
Updated: 2018-08-08
Packaged: 2019-06-23 16:24:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15610260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rumissan/pseuds/rumissan
Summary: A short vignette. Curian finds a girl confused and weak in the swamp.





	The Meeting

He was the first one to see her; the girl was soaked to the bone. Curian stood frozen, the scent of swampland vegetation curling his lip. She choked up more water than he believed her lungs could hold, and began peeling her matted hair and strings of algae from her face. “Captain! There’s a girl-!” came his unsure voice, quieter than he had hoped.

Fortunately, his captain had seen the stranger just moments after Curian did. “Curian,” the captain’s quiet voice instructed, “help her out of the water, will you?”

Curian snapped into action, slowly approaching the now-terrified girl. “It’s alright. Can… can I help you up?” he offered his hand, and when she didn’t immediately take it, he slowly withdrew and began to remove his cloak. “Are you cold? You can have this.” He held the cloak out to her, careful to keep it from touching the muddy pool she was splayed out in. The cloak surely stunk of the marsh he had been trekking through for the last several hours, but it was warm and dry. Well, mostly dry.

The captain had ordered the other men to keep pursuing the beast, and returned to Curian’s side. “Poor thing,” he crouched as he spoke, “How did you get all the way out here?” The girl was thin under her drenched clothes. Her face was gaunt, and her eyes wild. Slowly, cautiously, she stood and took the cloak from Curian, wrapping it around her shivering form. She looked even smaller inside the dense fur coat. “There you go,” the captain smiled warmly, “Come on, girl. We’ll take you back to town and get you something warm to drink. I’ll have my wife find ya’ something to wear besides that… uncomfortable looking gown.” He chuckled lightly, examining the long, tattered train stretching out from beneath the cloak into the murky water behind her.

The girl didn’t speak as the three made their way back to the village. She had calmed however, and had taken Curian’s arm when he offered it. He noticed how she bunched up the train of her dress in her other arm, her fingers barely ghosting over the material, as if she disliked the feel of it. When they arrived at the captain’s home, his wife rushed out to greet them, immediately fussing over the girl upon seeing her.

Curian would never forget the sight of her in that swamp, or the feeling in his gut when their eyes met the first time, but she would forget.


End file.
